In Hindsights
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Before the end of 2016, the next UN Secretary-General has to be chosen. The Security Council had its first informal discussion on this issue on 22 July. Though no meetings are scheduled in September in the Council on the Secretary-General selection process, members will be participating in the final stages of negotiations on a draft resolution in the General Assembly on the revitalisation of its work, which includes significant paragraphs on the selection process.
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A mix of old and new complex crises required the Security Council’s attention in 2014 resulting in one of the busiest periods for the Council in several years. New situations like Ukraine competed with long-term conflicts like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Reversing the trend of decreasing decisions and meetings, the Council, often at the initiative of elected members, showed renewed energy in tackling both new and stagnant issues.
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The UN Charter established a subsidiary body of the Council, the Military Staff Committee, with a mandate to advise and assist the Council on all questions relating to military requirements and the employment and command of forces placed at its disposal. However, the the Military Staff Committee soon became a victim of the Cold War divisions and never really got off the ground.
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Last month’s emergency meeting on the ebola outbreak in West Africa was a rare situation when the Council considered a public health crisis and adopted a resolution. However, this was not the first time. The Council has also over the years held a series of meetings on the AIDS epidemic and previously discussed pandemics in the context of new challenges.
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Over the past 60 years, nearly 20 civilian planes have been shot down in various places around the globe. Some downings occurred when a plane strayed off its route into the territory of a state that perceived the aircraft as...
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The Council has recently demonstrated renewed activity in using sanctions as a tool for maintaining international peace and security. With the adoption ofresolution 2140concerning Yemen on 26 February 2014, the Council reached an all-time high number of concurrent sanctions regimes: 15. Some Council members and observers, however, have recognised that there remains considerable room for improvement in UN sanctions design and implementation.
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The Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC) gives the Security Council a unique jurisdictional role. Article 13(b) of the Statute grants the Council the power, acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, to refer situations in which certain crimes may have been committed to the ICC. Article 16 of the Statute, on the other hand, allows the Council to defer a situation for one year through a Chapter VII resolution, for reasons relating to the maintenance of international peace and security.
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The Secretary-General recommended in 2013 the creation of three guard units—in the Central African Republic (CAR), Libya and Somalia—to protect UN political and peacebuilding missions operating in deteriorating security environments. What was once perceived as an exceptional measure taken in 2004 in a particularly difficult context (Iraq) may be becoming a common practice as special political missions are deployed in increasingly volatile settings. These developments, which have not attracted much publicity, nevertheless have led to a number of questions being asked, including whether Department of Political Affairs-led missions are the appropriate tool to tackle such situations, the mandate and expectations for guard units and other institutional issues within the organisation.
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Article 27(3) of the UN Charter not only enshrines the veto power of permanent members, but also institutes a limitation of this power through the principle of obligatory abstentions. In providing that “in decisions under Chapter VI, and under paragraph 3 of Article 52, a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting”, the Charter seeks to ensure that a Council member “should not be allowed to be party, judge and jury at the same time” (S/PV.4753).
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The 2013 composition of the Security Council—whose members jointly contributed 22.4 percent of UN peacekeeping personnel as of 31 December 2012—was instrumental in two significant developments regarding the use of force in peacekeeping operations.
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Since the three vetoes by Russia and China over Syria in 2011 and 2012 and the inability of the Security Council to find a solution to the conflict, there has been a common perception that the Council is divided. Likewise, following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Council was viewed as having become badly fractured. However, looking at decisions adopted, the Council is actually divided on just a limited number of issues and otherwise largely operates by consensus
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Who will chair each of almost two dozen subsidiary bodies of the Security Council (see the insert in this Forecast on Security Council Subsidiary Bodies: An Overview) is a question on many minds this time of the year.
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For two years—until the passage of resolution 2118 on 27 September requiring the verification and destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons—the veto blocked Security Council action on Syria, where a brutal civil war has claimed over 100,000 lives and prompted 2.2 million Syrians to flee into neighbouring countries. Joint China-Russia vetoes on three draft Syria resolutions have sparked discussion on and condemnation of the use of the veto, including by other permanent members.
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Permanent members have worked overtime for nearly two weeks to codify into a Security Council decision the 14 September Russia-US agreement to secure and dismantle chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria. With the issue of whether the Council acts under Chapters VI or VII of the UN Charter, and whether it does so in a binding manner, at the core of these negotiations, it may be worthwhile to take a closer look at this matter.
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On 17 October, the General Assembly is scheduled to elect five non-permanent members of the Security Council for the two-year term beginning on 1 January 2014.
